‘Warrior’ Canceled at Max — But Fans Still Have Hope for Season 4

Warrior has reportedly been canceled by Max, though there are some hints that the show still has a chance at renewal elsewhere. On Monday, TVLine reported that Max has canceled the martial arts historical drama and signed a new deal allowing Netflix to stream the first three seasons. That has opened up some speculation that Netflix could revive the show, but so far that’s only a hope.

Warrior has had a long and winding road with at least one other major cancellation threat in the past. The show actually began as a treatment written by Bruce Lee back in the 1970s. Lee’s daughter Shannon Lee teamed up with filmmaker Justin Lin to get the show made in 2019, and it first premiered on Cinemax. When Cinemax canceled the show after its second season, it was revived by HBO Max. Season 3 premiered in June of 2023, and it sounds like it didn’t perform well enough to warrant a renewal by Max.

Now, Max has reportedly licensed the non-exclusive rights to all three seasons of Warrior to Netflix. Insiders said that the show could be added to Netflix as early as February, potentially garnering it a whole new audience. In the age of social media, it’s always possible that fan outcry will inspire the streamer to finance a new season, but for now, that’s only a speculative hope for fans to cling to.

HBO CEO Casey Bloys issued a statement about the cancellation, saying: “Warrior introduced viewers to a distinct world from the past, executed with dynamic action and relevant storytelling, with a brilliant cast led by Andrew Koji. We can’t wait to see what [executive producers] Jonathan [Tropper], Justin [Lin] and Shannon [Lee] will bring to the next chapter of this series.”

Warrior is set in San Francisco in the late 1870s, and it focuses on organized crime gangs created by Chinese immigrants known as Tongs. These “Tong Wars” are well-documented in historical studies, but the show blends that information with heightened drama as well as a focus on martial arts and philosophy. It stars Andrew Koji as Ah Sahm, a skilled martial artist from Foshan, China who traveled to San Francisco in search of his sister, who emigrated to the U.S. years before him. His sister is played by Dianne Doan, and she has amassed power in San Francisco under the name Mai Ling, the leader of the Long Zii Tong. Meanwhile, Ah Sahm joins the Hop Wei Tong under Young Jun, played by Jason Tobin. The show also follows local police officers played by Kieran Bew and Tom Weston-Jones, and other Chinatown residents played by Olivia Cheng, Dean Jagger, Joe Taslim and Hoon Lee, among others.

You can stream all three seasons of Warrior now on Max, and on Netflix early next year. At the time of this writing, there’s no plan for a fourth season, but fans can hold out hope.